Rules of Fair Trade
by Cinnamon Selkie
Summary: I'll trade you," Albus offered in exasperation. "You can spend the holidays dealing with my crazy extended family and I can enjoy the peace and solitude of Malfoy Manor..." Next gen. Epilogue compliant. Mentions/implied het and slash. ON HIATUS.
1. Greener Grass

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter and the Harry Potter universe belong entirely to JKR.

**Prologue**

"Creevey, Colleen," continued Professor Neville Longbottom, watching as a tiny girl bounced forward to be sorted. "Gryffindor," he added under his breath.

"GRYFFINDOR!" bellowed the school sorting hat, and Neville nodded in satisfaction. He usually did win these little bets with himself, even for those students who were muggle-born or whose parents had attended another wizarding school, for whom he had no real point of reference. His ability to judge character at a glance was legendary among the other Hogwarts staff.

The sorting continued with no surprises until "Finch-Fletchley, Andrew."

"Hufflepuff," Neville murmured.

"RAVENCLAW!" screamed the hat. Neville blinked in surprise.

"Finnigan, Sean," he continued. "Gryffindor," he predicted.

"GRYFFINDOR!" confirmed the hat.

"Flint, Stacey," he called. "Slytherin," he added with more confidence. And sure enough...

"SLYTHERIN!"

The sorting continued uneventfully.

"Malfoy, Scorpius." Neville refrained from groaning. "Slytherin," it seemed almost redundant to add.

"SLYTHERIN!" the hat screamed in unknowing agreement. As though there had ever been any doubt. Neville looked to where his friend's son Albus stood, nervously awaiting his own sorting, and he cringed slightly as he considered an early retirement. Old resentments only ever seemed to strengthen themselves with succeeding generations, and the 'resentment' between Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter had never been exactly weak. And as a teacher he was going to have to deal with it.

"Potter, Albus," he called at last. "Gryffindor." Towards the middle of the Gryffindor table a sea of red hair interspersed with the occasional blacks and browns swayed as the people attached to it sat forward on their benches, preparing to leap to their feet and welcome their cousin. Even James Potter, who had, by all accounts, spent the last three weeks tormenting his brother with the unlikely possibility that he might become a _Slytherin_ was leaning forward eagerly, awaiting what they all believed to be a foregone conclusion.

"SLYTHERIN!" pronounced the sorting hat, and all hell broke loose.

-x-

**Greener Grass**

"I can't believe there's only a bit over a month til our OWLs," Albus Potter groaned for the fourth time in as many minutes. Scor Malfoy, his best friend and the only other person currently in their dormitory ignored him, so he continued. "There's _no way_ I'm going to be ready in time. I've been going though some old exam papers and—Scor, are you even _listening_ to me?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I've heard it all at least ten times already."

"Have you really?" huffed Albus. "Fine then, what was I going to say next, if you're so clever?"

"You've been going through some old exam papers, and even though you got _sickeningly_ high marks on all of them you're worried that you might be grading yourself more easily than the examiners will, so that they don't really count. And that's just the theory stuff, there's no way for you to be able to test yourself on the practicmmpph—"

Albus laughed, watching as Scor spat out the cushion.

"Am I really that bad?" he asked, slightly contrite.

"Worse," Scor muttered sourly.

"Sorry. Kick me if I start again alright? Dad always says I'm getting more like Aunt Hermione every time he sees me, and believe you me, that is _not _something I want happening."

"I thought you said you liked her?"

"I do, she's great, she's just a bit, um..." Albus trailed off, unable to find the right words.

"A bit of a know-it-all?" Scorpius offered.

"You've barely even met her," Albus laughed, although Scorpius noticed he didn't contradict the term.

"I really don't see why you're worrying so much though," Scor commented, giving his Potions essay up as a bad job and dropping it over the side of his bed to join the rest of his half-completed homework; it would remain there until such time as Albus decided to finish it for him. "Even if you fail everything spectacularly—which you won't considering how brilliant you are at everything, especially Defence, Potions, Transfiguration, History of Magic—"

"Alright, get to the point."

"Even if you fail everything spectacularly your family will still dote on you. I mean, James got—what?—four OWLs last year? But he still got a celebration party so huge that even my _parents _were invited. It stands to reason that the same applies to you."

Albus was biting his lip.

"I s'pose so," he agreed reluctantly. "It's not the same thing though. Even Mum knew that Jamie was going to play Quidditch professionally as soon as Dad let him drop out of school, so it's not like he was damaging his future career prospects or anything. But everything I'm even remotely interested in requires astronomically high NEWTs—"

"—Which you will get," retorted Scorpius, interrupting the pity fest. "I need high NEWTs to become an Auror too, but the chances of my getting them are nothing like as good as yours. And even if I _didn't _want to become an Auror, I've still got Father's expectations to live up to, and that's even worse!"

"What's the worst thing he can do, kick you out?"

"He won't _do _anything! He won't even say anything, he'll just _look _at me, and I'll know that I've disappointed him, _again, _and damn it, I don't want to! He's been through enough lately, what with my mother's death, and all..." Scor blinked rather rapidly.

Albus, caught between offering sympathy and pretending not to notice anything, settled for clearing his throat awkwardly and gazing out the window into the lake.

"And it's not even like I have older or younger siblings to take the pressure off me," Scor muttered a little huskily. "It's all down to me. Sometimes I really wish I wasn't an only child."

"Don't," Albus retorted, relieved to be back in familiar territory. "Between James taking all the hot water and Lily taking all of Dad's attention, siblings aren't all you make them out to be."

"I wouldn't mind," returned Scorpius, shrugging. "At least you'd never be bored."

"That's what you think. You've never had to wait for an hour and a half for Jamie to get out of the bathroom. He might seem like your stereotypical Quidditch-playing womaniser, but he's vainer than me and Lily put together."

Scorpius shrugged.

"A price worth paying, as far as I'm concerned."

"Oh really? I'll trade you," Albus offered in exasperation. "You can spend the holidays dealing with my crazy extended family and I can enjoy the peace and solitude of Malfoy Manor..."

"Yeah, because no one would ever notice the switch, certainly not. We're practically identical," Scor drawled sarcastically. It was a mistake. Opposition was all that it had ever taken to transform Albus's wildest flights of fancy into plans into which Scorpius would inevitably be dragged.

"Polyjuice Potion!" Albus exclaimed enthusiastically.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Oh, _please._ Even someone as clueless about potions as you are has got to know what Polyjuice Potion is. I mean, your family were all Death Eaters weren't they? It was one of the most popular methods they used in both wars, right after the Imperius curse. It uses a small part of an individual's essence in order to..."

With the ease of long practice Scor tuned out a long and complex explanation of which he understood about one word out of five.

"So it basically turns you into someone else for one hour at a time?" he asked at last, when it seemed as though Albus had wound down a little.

"No, of course not. Not really. I mean, you still have the same thoughts and memories and whatnot. It's just a physical transformation, really. Although I suppose there would be a bit of personality variation caused by having to adapt to different reflexes. That's probably why it only works for human to human transformations, too much difference. It doesn't even work on werewolves or people who have one parent who's a human and one—"

"And you're seriously suggesting we do this?" Scorpius interrupted incredulously.

"Sure, why not? It would be awesome!" Taking Scorpius's stunned silence to be agreement, he continued. "It'll be easy! The hardest bit will be brewing the potion, it's supposed to be NEWT standard, but I won't have any problems with it I shouldn't think..."

Scorpius buried his head under his pillow and groaned. It was going to take a _long _time to talk Albus out of this one...


	2. Platform Nine and Three Quarters

**A/N: **Thank you so so much to everyone who reviewed and favourited and alerted. You guys are the greatest. And thank you to my beta, Altyerre, for getting this to me, even though it took three attempts to get it through.

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter and the Harry Potter universe belong entirely to JKR.

**Platform Nine and Three Quarters**

"This is a terrible idea," Scorpius snapped, desperation having won out over tact and subtlety.

"You always say that."

"And I'm always right!"

Albus rolled his eyes.

"Just drink the potion, Scor. It's not going to hurt, I promise." _I hope, _he added silently to himself. He had been unable to find a description of the internal effects of the transformation process, even in the Restricted Section. He had, however, found some very disturbing pictures of the _external _effects, which, for several reasons, he had chosen not to share with Scorpius.

The two of them stood in an otherwise empty compartment towards the back of the Hogwarts Express, executing the most vital stage of Albus's ingenious (or moronic) plan; the switch. Scorpius, already wearing Albus's clothes, watched while Albus struggled his way into his own. Though they appeared very similar in both height and build, Scorpius was the more slender of the two, and he also preferred tighter clothing.

Turning his attention back to the murky green potion in his hand, Scorpius drew a deep, shaking breath. This was it. He could do the sensible thing, and back out, or he could go through with it, knowing that it was an outrageous deception, and that their fathers would completely flip out if they ever found out. He hadn't been particularly into the idea in the first place, so Albus would understand if he chickened out at the last minute. He wouldn't be happy about it, but he wouldn't make too big a deal of it either.

Squaring his shoulders, Scor tossed back the entire potion, shuddering. It really was every bit as vile as he had suspected. And his father was right; one day his curiosity was going to get him killed.

His stomach heaved violently, as though he were going to be sick. Gasping for air he stumbled sideways as the nausea was replaced by a burning sensation which spread throughout his body, his skin bubbling slightly as his body expanded to fill Albus's too-big clothes. His hair lengthened, falling across his face, and he watched in fascination as it darkened from pale blonde to inky black.

Across the room, the dazzling silver potion Albus had gulped down was creating the exact opposite transformation. He felt his hair shrinking back into his head as his fingers, already dramatically lighter in colour to someone who knew them well, lengthened and tapered slightly, and the calluses on his palms thinned considerably. Scor was a Quidditch-player too, but he was a Chaser to Albus's Beater.

Once the transformation was complete they checked each other over, looking for any tiny detail that might betray their switch. There weren't any.

"Just remember, this was all your idea," Scor muttered, a little startled to hear the words spoken in Albus's slightly deeper voice. "If anything goes wrong, I'm blaming you."

-x-

Albus abruptly skidded to a halt, causing Scorpius to barrel into him from behind. Scor grabbed him around the neck for balance, Albus grabbed the cage of his owl, Aconite, which had been sitting atop his own trunk which Scorpius had been pushing, Stacey Flint grabbed Scorpius's owl, Jupiter, and chaos was averted. Sort of.

"What the hell was that!?" Scorpius-as-Albus demanded, expecting an equally rude response.

Albus pointed mutely further along the platform, where two middle-aged men, one with shoulder-length blonde hair slightly receding from his forehead and the other with extremely short black hair and glasses stood deep in conversation with one another. Scorpius's—or rather, Albus's—jaw dropped. Literally.

"They're _talking,_" he said.

"_Politely,_" emphasised Irwin Nott, the only fourth year in their group.

"They don't even look like they _want _to kill each other," Albus murmured in awe.

"I thought they didn't like each other," frowned Elouise Goyle, puzzled.

Scorpius resisted rolling his eyes. _How come everyone's looking at me? _he wondered. _It's _Albus _who always—Oh!_

"They don't, Ellie," he responded kindly, with his best approximation of the smile Albus always gave her when he was explaining things that seemed beyond her grasp. Personally, Scorpius thought that her ditz act was a bit too perfect to be real. But then, the Malfoys had always been the suspicious kind. "That's why we're all so confused," he explained.

"Oh!" she said, with the tone of inane surprise that never failed to make Scor want to hit her, girl or not. She smiled happily at him, tucking her hand affectionately into the crook of his elbow. Scorpius could have sworn he felt his hair standing up on his head as he reminded himself that leaping backwards to get away from her would be completely out of character for Albus.

"Oh, look!" she exclaimed suddenly, tightening her hold on Scorpius's arm. "There's my family. Come on." So saying, she began to drag him away from the rest of their friends. "Daddy!" she called out.

"Elouise! Princess!" To Scor's immense relief, her father snatched her off his arm and into a crushing hug. Not that she seemed to mind.

"Hullo, Daddy," she responded, wrapping her arms around his neck. _Daddy? Who calls their father 'Daddy' at sixteen? _was Scor's disbelieving thought, but he got no further with it, as Elouise's brother—Beau-something-or-other—turned to greet him.

"Hey Al," he said, smiling warmly. _Al? Al? What happened to 'Potter' and 'Goyle'? _Scorpius wondered. What the hell was he supposed to call him now?

"Beauregard," he nodded in response, finally remembering the sixth year's name. 'Beau' would have just been too weird.

"I'll see you next year," Goyle stated, although there was a slight question in his tone that seemed wrong to Scorpius. Of course he would see Al next year; they were in the same house.

"Next year," Scor confirmed cheerfully, pretending to have missed the subtle intonation. Goyle looked at him for a moment, puzzled, and Scorpius knew that he had missed something important, but decided to let 'Al' sort it out later. Hopefully it wasn't major enough to blow the game. Now that the plan had been put into motion at last he found himself eagerly looking forward to a summer away from Malfoy Manor and his father's gloom, however guilty that made him feel.

-x-

Draco wasn't feeling particularly gloomy at the moment. Far from it, in fact. He had had time over the last few months in which to recover from the initial shock and grief caused by his wife's sudden and unexplained death, and while he was far from back to normal he at least felt able to face the world—and his son—again.

Turning away from Potter he smiled at Scorpius in welcome, hugging him in an almost unprecedented public display of affection. Scorpius took it surprisingly well, even going so far as to return the embrace. Stepping back from Draco he turned to look at Potter.

"Albus got sidetracked," he told him, and it seemed to both men that there was an odd hesitation in his voice, as though uncertain what words to use, or even what he wanted to say. Potter smiled in response.

"How are you, Scorpius?" he asked politely, although he seemed genuinely interested in the response.

"Well, thank you, sir," Scorpius replied, and again there was an awkwardness to him that made Draco knit his brows while Potter eyed him curiously for a moment.

"And how is Albus?" Potter enquired, and now the odd note was in his voice as well. _What the hell is going on?_ Draco wondered.

"Albus is fine Dad," Albus's voice said from behind them, and they all turned to face him. "I was just talking to the Goyles," he added in an aside to Scorpius, and there was an almost Malfoy-like look of interrogation on his face as he lifted one eyebrow.

Scorpius blushed.

Draco opened his mouth to voice his bewilderment, but was cut short by a—barely—muffled shriek.

-x-

"Daddy!" shrieked the beautiful redheaded bundle of energy that had appeared suddenly in Harry Potter's arms. Scorpius, identifying her correctly as Lily Potter, third year Gryffindor Seeker and Albus's only sister, wondered why the word 'Daddy' sounded less annoying and more cute when it came out of her mouth instead of Elouise Goyle's.

Glancing at Albus out of the corner of his eye it was apparent that he didn't agree. Which meant that—in his character as her older brother—he shouldn't show that either.

"I missed you Daddy," Lily confided almost tearfully, refusing to relinquish the death grip she had around her father's neck.

"Hello to you too, Lils," Scorpius interrupted, using a fair approximation of the dry tone that Albus used when something annoyed him. Too late did he realise Albus's mistake—and his own.

"Al-al!" she pronounced with another ear-splitting shriek, and launched herself at him as well. And, _damn it_, she was _heavy_. Or perhaps she just moved fast enough that it felt that way when she bashed into you. She certainly flew like a lightweight. She also had a grip like Devil's Snare, and for the first time Scor appreciated what his friend meant when he said that his baby sister had some cruel and unusual methods of keeping him and James Potter in line.

Unfortunately, he was having a hard time remembering to act the part of annoyed older brother, and that he shouldn't be noticing how she smelt, or how soft she was. Bloody hormones.

Smiling dazzlingly at him—at her _brother_ Scor reminded himself sharply—she released him before wrapping her arms around Harry's waist.

"I'll call you when I have more information, Potter," drawled a voice from behind them, and Scorpius turned to see his father and Albus-as-Scorpius preparing to depart.

"Please do," Harry nodded, and they smiled at each other. Not the smile of friends perhaps, but certainly the smile of allies.

Albus tried to remember what they had been talking about before he arrived, but could only recall a few words. 'Shacklebolt', 'election' and something about Malfoy never believing he would support...something...or someone perhaps.

"If it comes to that I never would have believed that I would support Per—" his father had begun to respond, before catching a glimpse of him over Draco's shoulder and falling silent so that they could greet each other.

"Come along, Scorpius," Draco said, recalling him to the present. After a moment of confusion where it looked as though Scorpius-as-Albus had forgotten his new role and was going to follow his father, Albus-as-Scorpius turned to follow instead.

"Owl me," he said over his shoulder, and Scorpius nodded. Even from a few minutes of conversation they had much to discuss between themselves.

-x-

"Okay, kids, let's find your cousins and then we can head home," Harry announced.

"Which ones?" Lily responded.

"Huh?" Albus asked involuntarily. Lily gave him a 'duh' look.

"Well, we do have five sets of them," she pointed out. As though he hadn't already known that. Although he actually seemed to have forgotten. Lucky him.

"Rosie and Hugo," Harry said, answering her initial question and ignoring the rest of the conversation with the ease of long practice. "Neither Ron nor Hermione could get the day off work, so they asked me to drop them off on the way past."

"For 'they asked' read 'Hermione instructed'," Lily stage whispered. Harry's lips twitched, but he gave no other sign of having heard her.

"You're going to have to let go of me so I can walk," he informed his clinging daughter.

"Sorry, Daddy." She wasn't. She let go of his waist and grabbed one of his hands with both of her own. "Better?"

"_...and Lily taking all of Dad's attention..." _Scorpius heard Albus's voice repeating in his head, and he resisted the urge to laugh. Apparently he hadn't been exaggerating. It just remained to be seen if James really hogged the shower.

-x-

"Uncle Harry!" a musical feminine voice exclaimed, and for the second time that day Scorpius watched a beautiful girl—this one a brunette, Rose Weasley, Gryffindor fifth year—launch herself tearfully into Harry Potter's arms.

Apparently his popularity with his young relatives wasn't restricted to females, as she was followed somewhat less tearfully by her brother Hugo, Ravenclaw fourth year.

And then by several other red-haired children who Scorpius gave up on identifying, but assumed to be Weasley cousins of some description.

"Harry, good to see you," announced a somewhat pompous voice, and a tall red-haired man who Scorpius decided must belong to some of the shrieking children attempted to shake Harry's hand.

"You, too, Percy," he responded, as politely as it is possible to do while being ripped limb from limb.

"Have you given any thought to...?"

"Yes, yes I have. I was talking to Draco just before, and we both agree. You are—Ouch!—the obvious choice. We just need to—Calm _down_, you lot—make sure that other people see that too—Ouch! Sorry Perce, I'd better go. I'll talk to you at work."

"Yes, I'd better get this ravening hoard home before their mother decides I've murdered them," the man called Percy agreed. It was only as he left, taking all the Weasley children barring Rose and Hugo with him, that Scorpius realised that all five of them were his.

Scorpius wondered whether Albus was able to keep track of all his cousins and just how much he himself would be able to bullshit his way through.

"_...we do have five sets of them..."_ Lily had said. It was going to be a long summer.


	3. Homecoming One: ScorpiusasAlbus

**A/N: **Alright. So, I have given up on my beta for the time being, as she seems to be out of contact at the moment. I figured you guys have waited long enough for this next chapter, even assuming that you _are _still waiting. I apologise for any mistakes that are still left. Please let me know if there's anything too drastic. Cinnamon.

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter and the Harry Potter universe belong entirely to JKR.

**Homecoming One: Scorpius-as-Albus**

Scorpius stood in the middle of a small, grimy square, whose only significant feature was the lack of a number twelve between eleven and thirteen, feeling more than a little confused. Somehow this wasn't how he had pictured the place Albus lived.

Lily Potter let go of her father's hand at last and seized what Scorpius assumed to be her trunk, a cage containing a small owl and several other bags. "Bloody hell," she muttered, as long, messy red hair fell over her face, obscuring her vision. She shook it out of her eyes as best she could without dropping anything and headed for the house. Scorpius couldn't tell whether she was headed for eleven or thirteen, and somehow he managed to lose track of her before she reached it.

With Lily gone, Harry wrapped his recently freed arm around Scorpius's shoulders and smiled at him.

"Welcome home, Albus," he said quietly, steering the two of them in the same direction as Lily had gone. With carefully concealed shock Scorpius saw that eleven and thirteen were moving apart from each other to make way for number twelve.

Well, that explained _that. _Sort of.

Harry pushed open the door with its peeling black paint and twisted silver serpent, and the two of them walked into a brightly lit hallway. Everburning Candles stood in an ancient silver serpent chandelier overhead and the matching candelabra resting on a small, sturdy-looking table off to one side of the hall, as well as in the newer looking silver candle sconces along the walls. The combination of bright floral wallpaper and a carpet composed of bright geometric shapes would have sent his father into fits and probably caused Albus's aesthetic soul almost physical pain whenever he saw it. Scorpius quite liked the whole effect, although he found it a little odd that there were no pictures of any description upon the walls.

At that moment James Potter, better known as Jamie, came down a staircase made of ancient dark wood, lined on either side with Everburning Candles in the same simple silver sconces featured in the hallway. Scorpius wondered whether one of the Potter children was or had been afraid of the dark, or if there was something more to the story.

"Hey, Dad," Jamie greeted, and Harry waved a hand in acknowledgement. "And little Alby! Long _time, _no _see!_" He cuffed Scorpius "affectionately" over the back of the head, and Scorpius realised a moment too late that Albus would probably have returned the favour. Fortunately Jamie seemed distracted by something, and temporarily oblivious to any peculiarity in his brother's behaviour.

"Jamie? What's wrong?" Harry asked, apparently noticing the same thing.

"Nothing," Jamie responded tensely, performing an awkward shrug which attempted to convey nonchalance. There was a slight pause. "Ginny's here," he added, and Scorpius suspected that the two topics were supposed to be unconnected.

"_Ginny _is your mother," Harry responded automatically. Jamie gave him a look of slight disbelief, which Scorpius assumed was directed at the spirit rather than the letter of his father's words. Albus had mentioned that neither Jamie nor Lily got along very well with their mother, although he had never said why. "How long is she staying?" Harry asked, giving up.

"Too long." His father gave him a look, and he rolled his eyes. "Two weeks, she said, but I'll give her till Friday." It was a Tuesday. "Less, if she finds out about Lils's tattoo."

"_Lily got a tattoo!?" _her father screeched, and Jamie choked with laughter.

"'Course not. Damn, why do I never have a camera on me when I need one?" he asked rhetorically.

Harry glared at him, failing signally to convey anything but amused exasperation.

"Who's cooking tonight?" Harry asked, changing the subject.

"Jamie is," Lily responded, coming down the stairs minus her bags, at the same time as Jamie said, "Lily is."

They looked at each other.

"Albus is," they chorused. Scorpius wondered how Albus would have reacted to that statement. He then wondered how he was supposed to maintain this charade for the entire holidays.

"Just give in gracefully," Harry counselled. "I'll make one of them do it tomorrow."

-x-

Dinner was served in the kitchen, at a long polished table which bore the scars of many battles.

Jamie had set the table after losing a who-can-look-more-pathetically-at-Dad competition. Lily, looking decidedly un-pathetic, had performed an impromptu victory dance. At least, Scorpius hoped that it was impromptu. If that was what she danced like after practicing, well...

Like the entire house that he had seen so far, the crockery and cutlery was decidedly mismatched. Muggle-style bowls from two different sets—one a creamy white with tasteful dark blue trim, and the other canary yellow with distinctly untasteful red and bright blue polka dots—contrasted terribly with heavy ornamental silver cutlery. It was decorated with a design of silver serpents, and Scorpius began to detect a trend.

Dinner itself was delayed by the non-appearance of Ginny Potter, who, Jamie said, had wanted to finish off a letter. Jamie also suggested that they start without her, and Lily seconded the motion. Harry looked tempted, but disagreed.

"Why don't you try and hurry her up, Albus?" he suggested at last. "She'll take it better from you. Probably," he added, a little unconvincingly.

Lily snorted.

"She'll be in her room," Harry said, taking Scorpius's uncertain silence for assent. Fortunately he also gestured in the correct direction, or Scor would have blown his cover royally by setting off in the same direction that he knew the children's rooms to be in.

-x-

Ginny greeted him far more warmly than Harry's wary suggestion had led him to expect, hugging him tightly and kissing him on both cheeks.

"Albus, dearest! I haven't seen you for the longest time. How have you been? Still working hard? How do you reckon you went on your OWLs? I just need to address this letter, and then I can send it off," she continued, not waiting for answers. "I suppose your father," she made a face, and Scorpius realised that the tension he had picked up on in the marriage was far from one-sided, "sent you up to hurry me along for dinner?"

Feeling that honesty wasn't necessarily the best policy, Scorpius ignored the question. She didn't seem to require an answer, anyway. _Blaise Zabini, _she scrawled on an envelope containing a letter that Scorpius estimated to contain three sheets of parchment at the least, before attaching it to the leg of an owl which had been perched patiently on the desk.

Scorpius frowned. His godfather's reputation with women was not a good one. His name had been coupled with several women over the years, Ginny among them. When Albus, who usually confided everything to Scorpius, hadn't said anything, Scor had assumed that the rumours were just that, rumours. Apparently he had been wrong. Maybe Albus didn't know about it—after all, Ginny was rarely at home—or maybe it just wasn't something he felt comfortable discussing, even with his best friend.

-x-

Albus, growing up with a large and mischief-loving extended family, would no doubt have described dinner as uneventful.

Scorpius, the only son of an only son of an only son, felt that there was something distinctly eventful about any meal which featured the daughter of the house getting into a screaming match with her mother and inadvertently exploding the salt shaker.

Scorpius was halfway up the stairs that led to the children's rooms when he realised that Albus had failed to provide him with some extremely vital information, namely, how to find his room. Lily had carried his trunk upstairs for him after she and Jamie had volunteered him for dinner duty, so he had had no opportunity to look around without his "siblings" looking on. They were directly behind him now, Jamie reprimanding her for taking her anger out on "that poor unsuspecting salt shaker" when there were plenty of "perfectly hideous ornaments" still around from when the Blacks owned the house.

This answered the question of where the house had come from. Sirius Black, a cousin of Scorpius's grandmother's, had been Harry Potter's godfather. The last surviving Black, he had disgraced the family by running away at the age of sixteen and later joining the Order of the Phoenix. At least, that was how Narcissa told it. _"He never felt as he ought about anything, even when we were children," _she had confided to him once. _"It was a judgement on him, the way he died, the filthy Blood Traitor, mindlessly going along with Dumbledore's schemes to stop true wizards from taking our rightful place in the world."_

Scorpius had never mustered sufficient courage to point out that a) it had been Narcissa's sister Bellatrix who had killed him, b) there was very little difference between the way he had died and the way Bellatrix herself had died and c) that when it came to mindless following it didn't get much worse than the Death Eaters. He wondered how Albus was going to deal with his grandmother, and realised a little guiltily that he hadn't given Albus instructions for finding his supposed room either.

As it turned out, identifying his room was the least of his worries. The hallway at the top of the stairs was lined by (in addition to the Everburning Candles) at least ten doors, each sporting a silver plaque. Several of them were blank, but the one closest to the stairs was marked with the words "Albus Severus Potter", and with the cunning of a true Slytherin Scorpius deduced that it was the correct one. Saying goodnight to Lily and Jamie he turned the handle, shaped as the head of—what else?—a silver serpent, and went in, closing the door behind him.

The door on the other side of the door could not have differed more greatly from the rest of the house. Tastefully decorated in several light shades of green and silver, the room spoke of Albus's love of beauty and obsessive neatness, as well as his house colours. Scorpius's father would have been in raptures (probably expressed as a nod of approval), and not for the first time Scorpius wondered whether he and Albus had somehow managed to be born into the wrong families.

Vowing to consider the matter more fully upon the morrow, and reminding himself that he had yet to Owl Albus as he had promised, he kicked off Albus's shoes and fell into bed. He was asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

**A/N: **So what did you think of Grimmauld Place? I'm more confident with characters than descriptions, so any feedback would be great. And this is not just a cheap attempt at getting reviews; well, not entirely. I really do want to know. Cinnamon.


	4. Homecoming Two: AlbusasScorpius

**A/N: **Once again, this is unbeta'd, so I apologise in advance for any mistakes. And if there's anything too major, I would be extremely grateful if you let me know...Cinnamon.

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter and the Harry Potter universe belong entirely to JKR.

**Homecoming Two: Albus-as-Scorpius**

Had Albus Severus Potter been a different sort of person—which, obviously, he wasn't—his first impression of the Malfoy Estate might have taken into account the long winding driveway, the tall yew hedges and the elaborate wrought-iron gates. As it was he never got far enough past the peacocks to notice any of these things.

Throughout his short life Albus had been exposed to some of the strangest aspects of both the Muggle and Wizarding worlds; growing up as a Potter and a Weasley pretty much guaranteed that. But the sight of an entire flock of white peacocks was something else entirely. It was a good thing that Draco had been paying more attention to driving than to Albus, otherwise he would most certainly have realised that something was wrong. Even Beau and Ellie's dad would have noticed something wrong.

The two of them entered the huge, dimly lit mansion—manor—and Albus wondered what Scorpius would have done next. He eyed Scorpius's trunks.

"Your grandmother's waiting for you out on the South Slope once you've taken your stuff up to your room," Draco said, catching the look. Well, that answered at least two questions, but raised a rather more pressing one; where was Scorpius's room? With a twinge of guilt he realised that Scorpius wouldn't know his way around Grimmauld Place either. They really hadn't planned this out anywhere near as well as he had thought.

"I'll walk you up," Draco offered, once more coming to his rescue, and for an instant Albus wondered if he could possibly know. He couldn't, of course.

At one stage back on the platform Albus had been sure that his own father knew, but apparently it had been little more than a fleeting suspicion, otherwise he would have said something. Probably. Sometimes he was a bit difficult to predict, even for Albus, who everyone used to claim was the most like him of all of his three children. They had stopped saying that after he had been sorted into Slytherin, of course.

"Here we are," Draco announced, interrupting his reverie as he pushed open a door made of thick dark wood. Albus was prepared to bet that it was sound-proof even before the multitude of spells that were almost certainly layered over it.

Albus almost winced as the contents of the room were displayed before him, and Draco _did _wince.

"I'll leave you to your unpacking then," he said, closing the door behind him, leaving Albus to take stock of the multi-coloured pigsty that served Scorpius Malfoy as a bedroom. Really, it was bad enough sharing a dorm with him and three other boys, now he had to cope with this on his own?

No, he did not, Albus decided.

Scorpius Malfoy was about to undergo a transformation into a neat-freak, and the real Scorpius would just have to deal with the consequences when he got back. He could always say it had just been a phase or something. Besides, Albus was absolutely positive that his own room would be virtually unrecognisable when he got back. It was only fair that the same should apply to Scorpius's.

-x-

"It is good to see you, Grandmama," Albus stated formally.

"Scorpius. It is good to see you also. Come sit."

Albus lowered himself gingerly into one of the delicate looking cane chairs that overlooked an expanse of grass leading up to the edge of what could have been called either a small lake or a large pond. Somehow, he didn't think that any of the Malfoys would appreciate it being referred to as a pond, though.

They sat in silence for a while, before Albus finally snapped.

"So..."

"So...?"

Oh, she was going to be like that about it, was she?

"So, how has Dad been? Really, I mean?"

"Dad?" she asked, startled.

"Father," Albus corrected himself, flushing slightly. Damn this stupid complexion of Scorpius's. Albus Potter never blushed.

Narcissa looked at him strangely for a moment, before answering his initial question.

"A lot better than he has been. Not completely better, by a long shot, but certainly improved. He has started to take an interest in things again. I have tried to talk to him a few times, to help him, but...Well, you know how he can be."

_No I don't, _Albus thought, but wisely kept his mouth shut. For the first time he was beginning to doubt the wisdom of his latest exploit. It wasn't that he didn't think that they could pull it off; between them he and Scorpius could do practically anything. But perhaps Scorpius and Draco needed to work through things together.

Then again, perhaps not. Scorpius wasn't very good at dealing with any kind of emotion, and he suspected that that was a trait that he had acquired from Draco. Not that Albus himself was particularly good at it, but he was an outsider, and when it came right down to it he was probably in a far better position to help Draco than Scorpius would be.

And reluctant as Albus was to admit it, his loud, quarrelsome, loving family was probably exactly what Scorpius needed at the moment. Providing that he survived them, of course.

"How did your OWLs go?" Narcissa asked hesitantly, uncertain of how he would react. Since his mother's death Scorpius had suddenly started taking his schoolwork a lot more seriously, as though afraid of upsetting his father further. Which was stupid, if he only knew that. It had always been his mother who pushed him to excel; Draco really couldn't care less about grades.

Albus shrugged. He himself knew that he had gone fairly well on his OWLs, but he had no idea how Scorpius had done, since Scorpius point-blank refused to talk about exams after they had finished. It was his frequently stated view that once it was over there wasn't much you could do to change it, and going over and over it would only cause you to worry more.

Sometimes Albus really didn't understand his best friend. Going over and over them was the most fun part of exams, better even than that instant when you put your quill down and you just _knew _that you'd got everything right.

Of course, that feeling had faded now, and after dissecting the Charms paper over and over in his mind—Scorpius had used some rather uncalled for threats in order to silence him—he was actually fairly certain that he had made serious mistakes in at least two places. While as for Transfiguration...

"Oh, there's the dinner gong," Narcissa said with relief. Apparently Scorpius was taking OWLs more seriously than even she had realised; he looked to be brooding quite heavily. She only hoped that the results would come _soon. _Dealing with Draco's mood swings was quite bad enough without Scorpius adding to them.

-x-

Whatever Scorpius's room lacked in tidiness and decor it more than made up for with the bed, Albus decided sleepily later that night. You couldn't even see what a mess it was in the darkness, but you could certainly tell what the bed was like. Which was, in short, heaven. And Albus wasn't even sure he meant that figuratively.

The beds in the Slytherin dorms were big enough, and comfortable enough, and back at Grimmauld Place he had a double bed which up until now he had regarded as the most comfortable in the world. But this...This was incredible. It wasn't just double, it was King sized. Bigger than that, even. And softer than that, too.

And he wouldn't have to get up in the morning. Well, he would, but not for ages. He would be able to have a shower whenever he wanted without having to kick Jamie out first. And he wouldn't have to go flying with the rest of them first thing, either. Not that he didn't love those weekly flights; he did. But there was a lot to be said for not being pulled from his dreams by Lily banging impatiently on the door and demanding that he wake up...

**A/N: **When I first published this fanfic I made a New Year's resolution to not beg for reviews, which I am hereby breaking. (Last chapter didn't count. No, really, it didn't.) 27 days, not bad. Review, review, review! Please? Cinnamon.


	5. Family Bonding

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter and the Harry Potter universe belong entirely to JKR.

**Family Bonding**

"Albus, wake up!" CRASH. CRASH. CRASH. "Albus!"

_Wha!?_

CRASH. CRASH. CRASH.

Where was he?

"Albus! Come on! I know you're awake in there."

Where _was _he!?

Gradually the events of the previous day began to filter through Scorpius's mind, and he remembered where he was, and realised that the voice on the other side of the door belonged to his 'sister', Lily.

"Albus, I'm giving you five seconds to answer, then I'm coming in. Five. Four."

_Shit. Shit. Shit. _She couldn't come in.

"Three. Two."

The Polyjuice Potion would have worn off overnight. She _couldn't _come in.

"One."

The door-handle began to turn.

"I'm awake!" he yelled. Or at least he tried to. It came out as more of a loud croak, but it apparently got the message across, because he heard Lily step back from the door and giggle.

"Breakfast's ready," she announced, far too cheerfully in Scorpius's opinion. What time was it, anyway?

One look at his watch was enough to make him groan and bury his head under Albus's pillow, though not before locating one of the vials of Polyjuice Potion that Albus had given him. That had been entirely too close.

-x-

Albus snuggled deeper into his warm bed, and smiled sleepily. It was so peaceful.

Wait. It was _peaceful!?_

-x-

Scorpius woke up again far too soon, to the sound of an annoyingly upbeat song and the splash of running water.

"_...She got hips that sway for you/ She got legs that never really stop...*"_

He squeezed the pillow tighter over his head and attempted to go back to sleep.

CRASH. CRASH. CRASH.

"Albus, come on. You've got to get up some time. Besides, me and Dad are going to leave without you if you don't hurry up." There was a pause.

"_...She just smiles and says to me/I just want to know if we are good..."_

"And tell Jamie to get out of the bloody shower before we leave him behind too."

Wait. That was Jamie? James Sirius Potter, Quidditch extraordinaire, voted Most Annoying Asshole, Most Physically Attractive Male and Most Likely to be Murdered in His/Her Bed by the one hundred and thirty-nine members of the Hogwarts Trivial Votes Committee was _singing in the shower. _What kind of alternate dimension was this, anyway?

"_...Tell me once again, why would you lie to me..."_

Fifteen minutes later the amusement was beginning to give way to annoyance. Either Jamie only knew the one song, or he only sung one song per shower in order to conceal how long it was taking.

If so, it wasn't working.

"_She got hips that sway for you..."_

-x-

Albus sat up once more, smashing his pillow into a—theoretically—more comfortable shape before flopping down again. How anyone could sleep in this overwhelming silence was beyond him. It wasn't natural. The only sound he could hear at all was a faint chirping of birds in the distance.

Never in his sixteen years of life had he been subjected to this kind of quiet. Hogwarts was always noisy, as was any house that contained his siblings. Or any of his cousins for that matter.

This...wasn't...natural.

-x-

_This isn't natural, _Scorpius thought crossly.

Jamie had finally emerged from the bathroom so he could take his own shower, and now the four of them—Harry, Jamie, Lily and Scorpius-as-Albus—were sitting around the kitchen table once more, this time eating breakfast.

What kind of freaks got up willingly at this hour?

And to add insult to injury they were all so bloody cheerful about it. No wonder Albus had been so eager to trade places with him. No one should have to be awake this early.

Up until today Scorpius hadn't even been aware that the sun was up this early.

He wished he wasn't aware of it now.

-x-

Wasn't anyone going to come and wake him up? Albus wondered. He could have _died _in here, and no one would be the wiser. Granted, it was unlikely, but it was still a possibility.

No wonder Scorpius had been so set on trading places with him.

Although he really hadn't been, had he?

Well, he should have been, anyway.

-x-

"That's _cheating!_" Jamie squawked, and from his vantage point on the ground Scorpius laughed harder. Apparently the Quidditch Pro was having a few issues with the fact that his little sister was a much better flyer than he was.

It was nearly noon, and he and Harry had long since stopped flying, instead relaxing back against one of the trees that lined the field.

"How are you, really?" Harry asked, out of the blue, and Scorpius jerked his head around to look at him. He looked much as he had all morning, relaxed and carefree, as he shaded his eyes to watch Lily and Jamie flying loops around each other.

"How do you mean?"

Harry turned his head, and Scorpius could tell that this wasn't just idle small talk to while away the time before the others finally gave up on their attempts to outdo each other. He really wanted to know.

"You just seem...different, is all. You're quieter, for one thing, and you're letting Lily and Jamie get away with things that normally you wouldn't. And for a moment back on the platform I almost thought—" He broke off, shaking his head. "Never mind."

"Well, I really am fine. I'm a little bit worried about my OWLs, is all." That was certainly true, and knowing Albus it was true for him too.

Harry uttered what could have been either a cough or a poorly concealed laugh.

"That I can believe. But you haven't really said much about them; that was mostly what I was talking about when I said you seemed quiet. Is there anything else bothering you? I mean, you don't have to tell me about it if you don't want to. But if there's anything I can help with...?" He left the question hanging, and as Scorpius's mouth opened he realised that it hadn't just been courage and bravado that had made Harry Potter such a widely acclaimed Auror before his retirement. He was also almost impossible to deny.

Fortunately, Scorpius had been raised by Draco Malfoy, and so he had been trained by necessity to lie to the very best.

"Nothing major. And nothing I can tell you about without betraying confidences. I'm sorry," he added, with perfect sincerity. Somehow lying to Harry Potter made him feel guiltier than lying to his father. Draco expected him to lie.

Harry sighed, but dropped the subject.

"Well, if you change your mind, you know where to find me. Do you think they're going to let us go home for lunch, or are we going to have to spend the rest of our lives here?"

-x-

Albus knocked determinedly on the door of his 'father's' study, two broomsticks in his other hand.

"Father?" he asked, opening the door to reveal a rather frustrated looking Draco Malfoy. "You want to take a break from the paperwork and come flying?"

Draco stared at him, an indecipherable—to Albus, at least—expression on his face.

"I mean, you don't have to, if you're in the middle of something," Albus blurted out. "I just thought that maybe, since it's my first full day back, and all—"

Draco smiled what felt like his first genuine smile all day. Possibly his first smile full stop.

"I would love to go flying with you. Just give me five minutes."

**A/N: **If anyone is interested, I have just started posting another, very different, Harry Potter fanfic, this one a re-do fic where Ron goes back in time to just before he starts Hogwarts. Re-do fics are generally not my thing, but so far it has been fun to write, and hopefully it will be fun to read as well. Cinnamon.

**Credit Where Credit's Due: ***Lyrics to _Lie To Me_ by Daniel Powter.


	6. Owling One

**A/N: **I know I'm early to update, and I would apologise if I thought that anyone would object. I've been having a weird day, not in a good way, and I just want to take my mind off things. Any Australian readers will understand what I mean when I say that this is not a fun place to be listening to the news at the moment--extensive flooding in Queensland and extensive fires in New South Wales and Victoria. The rest of you I won't bore with details. I hope that you enjoy this chapter, and please review, I really need cheering up at the moment. Cinnamon.

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter and the Harry Potter universe belong entirely to JKR.

**Owling One**

_Albus—_

_Sorry I took so long to write to you. I was going to do it last night, but everything was kind of crazy, and between one thing and another I simply didn't get the chance. Your mother's home, by the way. She says for a couple of weeks, but Jamie gives her till Friday. I get the impression that Friday isn't soon enough in his eyes. _

_And Lily and Ginny had a fight at dinner; I'm not really sure how common that is, but Lily got het up enough that she did accidental magic—blew up a salt shaker—so I think it was pretty bad. They were talking about something to do with some guy in Lily's year—I wasn't really listening, so I'm not sure who—and Ginny said something about when she was in school and suddenly they were screaming at each other. It was pretty scary, actually._

_So by the time I finally got up to your room I was fairly worn out and I decided to write to you in the morning. Well, that kind of fizzled, because I was woken up almost before it was light by your psychopath of a sister trying to bash down the door. Why _exactly _didn't you warn me that I would be expected to go flying at the crack of dawn on the very first day of the holidays? Perhaps because you thought I'd refuse to go through with your crazy scheme if I knew? Because if so, you were right. I would have. _

_It was actually pretty fun though._

_I'm a bit worried about how I'm going to keep this whole thing from your father, though. He said something today which made me think that he might already have a suspicion of what's going on, which means he's going to be watching me closely. Which means that any time I hesitate even slightly, or say something that you wouldn't say—like calling him Father instead of Dad—he's going to notice and get even more suspicious. Is there anything that you can think for me to do that would be so totally Albus that no one could possibly doubt my identity? Because I really think I'm going to need it._

_Anyway, we didn't come back for lunch until like three in the afternoon, and by that time I was so starving I could almost have eaten Jupiter. So I decided to write to you after I'd had "lunch", but then Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione and Rosie and Hugo came over to visit and for dinner later on, and Uncle Ron challenged me to a game of wizards' chess, which he won easily, and I think that that might have been a slip up on my part, because even Ginny started asking if I was feeling alright. _

_So then Lily rescued me by announcing that she was the Grand Master of Exploding Snap and that no one else in the family knew how to play properly, so everyone, even the adults, decided that we had to play a game, and then it turned into about twenty games, and then dinner was really late, because Jamie—who Harry made cook, since I did it last night—was trying to prove that he was better than Lily at Exploding Snap. He didn't manage, but he came pretty close. _

_And then once we _did _get dinner, Uncle Ron kept filling up Harry's glass, and the next thing we knew he was being coaxed into telling stories from the Second War, and from when he was an Auror. And I definitely want to be an Auror, it sounds incredible. Why did your dad give it up, anyway? He sounded like he really enjoyed it, too._

_So it was nearly midnight by the time the Weasleys left, and when I said that I had meant to write to you last night I actually meant the night before last, because according to my watch it's nearly two in the morning, so I'd better stop writing soon, because I think I may have promised to go with Lily to Diagon Alley tomorrow, as repayment for the rescue._

_Anyway, how have you been managing? Did you find your way around alright? It wasn't until I tried to find your room that I realised that I hadn't really told you about the layout of the place yet. You've probably explored it all by now though. There's not really that much to do around Malfoy Manor. _

_Oh, have you met Grandmama? You must have, by now. What did you make of her?_

_Anyway, I really had better go._

—_Scorpius _

-x-

_Dear Scorpius,_

_Yes, Mum and Lily get along even worse than Mum and Jamie do, which is saying something. I don't know why, not for sure, and I'm not going to tell you what I suspect until I do know for sure._

_Don't worry about the exploding salt shaker incident, that sort of thing's pretty common when those two are together. And you don't need to worry that Lily'll do that sort of thing to you, because there is absolutely nothing accidental about it, and she only ever does it to Mum._

_Sorry I didn't warn you about the early rising thing, but like you said, you would have backed out, and I really need this break from my family at the moment. There's stuff going on right now that—Well, I guess you'll see soon enough, especially with Mum at home. It won't really affect you so much, since you're not really a part of the family, so I don't even feel particularly guilty about that. _

_As for slip-ups, I did that exact thing the day before yesterday. Called Draco Dad instead of Father, I mean. It was to Grandmama though, and I don't think she paid much attention to it beyond looking at me funny, she was too busy complaining about how your father never talks to her about anything._

_So, obviously, I've met her. She seems a pretty amazing lady, actually, so long as you keep away from certain subjects. Could you possibly send me a list of all the ones you can think of? I don't want to discover them all through trial and error; I can't help thinking that that might be quite painful._

_And Dad suspecting...Well there's not really much that you can do about that beyond hoping that he'll just assume that you've changed with age and stop watching you too closely. If it comes right down to it, though, and you're pretty sure he's going to bust you you're better to just confess the whole. He usually figures things out two days before you think he has, and he's just waiting for that confession. He's pretty understanding, but not if you lie directly._

_I asked him about that once, and all he would say was: "When you're older I'll tell you a bit more about your namesake; you'll understand then."_

_I have explored most of the manor, and I actually like how quiet it is here. Well I do now. Yesterday morning was a little weird. How did you go getting Jamie out of the shower, by the way?_

_Draco and I went flying over the estate today; it's really huge, and also really beautiful. I never realised that there was that much undeveloped space all together in England. No farms or anything. Is it all there naturally, or is it magic? What I mean is, would it show up on a map, or is it one of those places where the scale says there's about one kilometre between point A and point B, but there's actually about twenty? Is Malfoy Estate your only one in England, or are there others? I already know that you've got a "little" place in Italy, and a couple of other countries._

_Good luck with Lily and Diagon Alley. You're going to need it._

_Sincerely,_

_Albus Severus Potter._

-x-

_Albus—_

_IT WAS HORRIBLE!!! YOUR SISTER IS A COMPLETE NUTCASE AND HER FRIENDS ARE EVEN WORSE! I AM NEVER GOING TO DIAGON ALLEY EVER EVER AGAIN! HOW CAN YOU STAND IT!?_

—_Scorpius _

-x-

_Albus—_

_Sorry about that. I was going though post traumatic stress or something. It really wasn't that bad. Really. It wasn't. It could have been worse. Really. It could have been._

_If I tell myself that enough times I might even start to believe it._

_I still don't want to talk about it, though._

_Jamie was wrong about your mother's departure date, by the way. It's Friday morning and she's still here. Not for much longer the way things are going, though. She's already had about three serious run-ins with Lily, two with Jamie, two with me (Don't look at me like that, she was driving me nuts.) and even one with Harry when she went a little far with retaliating against Jamie. I didn't hear what she said, but your father was absolutely white with anger, and it was Jamie who had to calm him down._

_So I don't think she'll be here much longer, and I reckon that can only be a good thing for everyone involved, her included. I know that this really isn't any of my business, but I don't think that she's very happy here, and I don't think that Jamie and Lily are the problem. I think it's her relationship with Harry. They might just be going through a bad patch, but it seemed more serious than that to me. Was that what you meant when you said that about needing a break from everything that was going on at home? How long has it been like this, anyway?_

_Don't answer that if you don't want to, but I think it would be a good idea for me to know, so that I don't put my foot in it more than necessary._

_Things have settled down a bit at the moment, though, because Teddy was around for a while last night, and he played peacemaker a bit. Well, actually he told us all to shut our mouths if we didn't want to get bitten. Everyone took it fairly well, though. Ginny actually laughed, and not in a nasty way, either. She seems to get along with Teddy a lot better than she does with Jamie or Lily which I find a little strange, but I'm sure that there are reasons. (Hint, hint.)_

_Things you should never mention to Grandmama:_

_*The first war_

_*Voldemort, the Dark Lord, He Who Must Not Be Named, You Know Who, etc._

_*Grandfather Lucius_

_*Azkaban_

_*Bellatrix Lestrange née Black_

_*Andromeda Tonks née Black_

_*Sirius Black_

_*Regulus Black_

_*The second war_

_*Particularly the Battle of Hogwarts_

_*Even more particularly your dad_

_There are probably loads of other things as well, but I think that those are probably the most important ones for now._

—_Scorpius_

-x-

_Dear Scorpius,_

_Yes, that was what I was talking about when I said I needed a break. It's not just a bad patch, it's been like this almost constantly since just before Lily was born, that I remember. They were actually going through a good patch when I was born, but I think the problem actually went back before then, and if I'm right about the reasons, even a little bit, it would explain why she likes Teddy so much better. But I'm not telling you anything more. Like I said, I don't know anything for sure._

_Thank you for the list, although you missed one rather significant point; "Those bloody peacocks"._

_I don't want to talk about it, except to say that I may never forgive you._

_If Mum does leave soon, you should probably prepare for a sudden increase in the amount of visitors. Loads of our family and Mum and Dad's mutual friends prefer to see them separately, just so that they don't get caught in the crossfire or asked to choose a side. I think I can probably see their point._

_Good luck,_

_Albus Severus Potter_

-x-

_Albus—_

"_Those bloody peacocks" come under the dot point of Grandfather Lucius. You couldn't have been expected to know that though, I suppose. So, I'm sorry. A little, anyway. Mostly because I wasn't there to see your face._

_Your mum left this morning, and the whole atmosphere of the place has changed. Everyone is a lot more cheerful, and I would feel guiltier about feeling more cheerful myself, except that she did too._

_And I told your Dad I was working on my homework, so I should probably try to get some done in case he asks about it. What answer did you get for the seventh question of the Arithmancy assignment? I keep coming up with the same answer, but I _know _that it's wrong. And Harry didn't do Arithmancy when he was a school, so I can't make him help me like I did with Transfiguration. Which must have been pretty out of character for you, because he looked at me as though I'd grown four extra heads and announced that I wanted to become a mermaid..._

—_Scorpius _


	7. Serenity

**A/N: **This chapter is for ryoku1 who wanted to see more of Draco, and for DesireeBoils who first got me thinking about Scorpius's mother. My thanks to you both, and to everyone who has been reviewing. I hope that Draco doesn't come across as too out of character here--keep in mind that people often reveal things that they wouldn't otherwise do when they can't see each other's faces, especially when they're half asleep. Cinnamon.

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter and the Harry Potter universe belong entirely to JKR.

**Serenity**

Draco jerked abruptly upright, his breath coming in sharp gasps as he tried to re-orient himself to his surroundings.

"Just a nightmare," he whispered. "Just another bloody nightmare."

His eyes squeezed shut, and he drew another shaky breath, his heart-rate gradually slowing. It had been five months since Serenity's death, and he had convinced himself that the lack of nightmares over the last few weeks had indicated that he was recovering from it.

Apparently he had been wrong.

The nightmare was already fading, but a faint echo of that dream remained; a horrifying image of Scorpius's blood-covered face twisted in agony. It was a grotesque meld of his memories of the second war and his more recent memories of Serenity's gruesome and still unaccountable death, along with his own terrifying conviction that it had somehow been his fault, and that Scorpius would be snatched from him too.

As he emerged into full consciousness even that image faded, leaving behind it a pressing desire to ensure that his son was unharmed. Impatiently shoving the tangled bedclothes onto the floor he got to his feet and headed for the door, pausing for a moment to shrug his way into his dressing gown. For all that it was summertime, the night was still chilly.

-x-

Albus stirred slightly, wondering what had woken him. A scuffing noise from the direction of the door alerted him, and he realised that his dad must have had another nightmare.

Apparently the war had left scars other than the one that marred his forehead. His father had never revealed the contents of those nightmares, and Albus had never asked him to. It had been twenty-four years since the war had ended, and after that amount of time, he doubted that there was anything that he or anyone could do to stop them. Although now that he thought of it, it had actually been quite a while since the last one...

Albus lay very still, expecting him to move on to check on Jamie and then Lily as well, as he usually did, not wanting his father to realise that he had woken him. When there was no further movement he rolled again, this time in the direction of the doorway. The window curtains were parted in the centre, illuminating a large swathe towards the foot of the bed, but leaving the doorway and Albus himself in complete shadow. Despite this he could faintly make out the outline of a man still silhouetted against the doorway.

"Dad, what's the matter?" he asked sleepily. "Did you have another nightmare?"

"Sorry, Scor, I didn't mean to wake you."

_Huh? Oh! Oh, shit!_

"You knew I'd been having nightmares?" Draco asked, a slight frown in his voice.

Albus shrugged, still cursing inwardly, then realised that he would have to do better than that since Draco couldn't see him.

"I suspected," he said noncommittally.

Draco sighed deeply, moving to sit in the swathe of light at the foot of the bed. Albus inwardly cheered his own good fortune as he realised just how...interesting...this midnight stroll of Draco's could have become if the pillow had been at the other end of the bed.

-x-

Draco sighed, moving to sit on the foot of Scorpius's bed. Of course he would have suspected. Even if the two of them had never been particularly close, it was still not something that was easy to hide from someone who shared a house with you. Although this was the first nightmare he'd had since his return...

Draco shook his head to dismiss the irrelevant though. None of that mattered.

"Would talking about it help?" he heard Scor ask hesitantly, and for the umpteenth time since the holidays had started Draco found himself startled by how much better he had become at dealing with the emotions of others. He used to cope with such things by simply withdrawing further and further behind the Malfoy Mask, as his grandfather—Draco's father—would have done, and as Draco himself too often did.

He was trying to fix that, though, he really was. Since Serenity's death he had realised just how much he missed out on by blocking himself off from others. Not that he was about to go around wearing his heart on his sleeve like some over-emotional Gryffindor, but that didn't mean he had to shut out those closest to him.

With this in mind he decided to try to explain how he felt to his son, and hope that it wasn't enough to push Scorpius back behind his own walls.

"It's...complicated," he said at last.

"Complicated in what way?"

"It's not just the one thing...It's more than one thing..."

"Well, what is one of those things?" Scor asked, with far more patience than Draco himself had ever possessed. His voice even sounded different, deeper, although that could simply be from sleep.

Draco found himself pleating the covers nervously, a habit which his father had broken him of when he was eight.

"Is it about Mum?" Scorpius persisted.

"A-a little," he admitted.

"The way that she died, or the fact that she died?"

"It's—I-I guess—Well, maybe—It's a little—a little of both..."

-x-

"And you blame yourself," Albus prompted with more certainty, feeling himself to be on more familiar ground. His father, even now, re-lapsed occasionally into fits of self-blame. And Serenity's death was just recent.

"Of course. I mean, they listed cause of death as unknown, but...It was so obvious. There was no disease, no natural disease, that could have done that...And any enemies we had...they weren't her enemies at all, they were mine, and my father's. From the war, from when we were both Death Eaters. Not that I ever did much very useful for him, but nobody really wants to hear that..."

-x-

Now that he had started, Draco found that it was difficult to stop. Some of these things had been bottled up for years, and only began surfacing after Serenity's horrible death.

"Show me one person who was around during the war who actually believes that, and I'll show you Harry Potter..."

There was a sudden movement, quickly stilled, from Scorpius, and Draco looked at him curiously.

"It's nothing. Just pins-and-needles. Keep going."

Draco frowned, but continued anyway. If he stopped now he doubted that he would ever start again.

"I truly didn't do much. I tried so hard, but I just couldn't. To start with I wanted to...I was so sure that the Dark Lord was right, that he was making the world a better place, and that I would be helping him to do so...It made sense to me, on some level. I had been raised to believe myself so superior to everyone, to be right where others were wrong, to look down upon others for being born to a different world...I never questioned it, never considered that my parents could be wrong.

"I was just a child Scorpius...Just a child. Just your age...Merlin, I really was just a child. I mean I know that you're _not _just a child, you're capable of making your own decisions, but no one that young should have to go through the things that I went through..."

"I know what you meant," Scorpius said softly. "You just meant that you didn't have the experience to form your own judgements; of course you were going to follow in your parents footsteps and believe that whatever they told you was the truth. They told you that you were special, which is what everyone wants to hear. You had no reason to question that."

Draco nodded.

"Your mother's death; it really was because of me. Not my fault exactly—I know that most of the time—but certainly because of me, for whatever reason. Whether the because of the war or something more recent. We Malfoys are born to make enemies..."

He laughed suddenly, a brief and incongruously happy sound.

"Not you though... You were born to make friends, and I'm glad of it. Enemies might make you important, but it is friends who truly make you special. Remember that, and don't make the mistakes I made. Don't close yourself off, no matter how much it hurts. It's not worth it. Believe me, I know. And once you start it's so difficult to stop...

"Your mother and I had an arranged marriage originally. I think that you knew that. But I loved her, Scorpius. I loved her so much. I never told her that. Not once, and I should have. I should have told her so many times..."

Draco could feel the tears now streaming down his face, and it felt good to cry, openly, for the first time since Serenity's death. The first time ever, if it came to that.

"I love you Scorpius. I love you so much. Don't ever doubt that for one second. No matter what I do or say—or don't do or say—that will always be true..."

"I know Father. I love you too."


	8. Luna

**A/N: **I have had a couple of comments with regard to Serenity Malfoy and Astoria Greengrass/Malfoy, and while I have answered them in my review replies, I suspect that there are other people thinking the same thing, so I am going to say one thing now: I am going by _book _canon, which means that any information provided by JKR outside of the books is going to be ignored, unless it fits in with the story. Astoria's name was never menioned throughout all seven books, and Draco Malfoy's wife is only ever referred to as "his wife". From Scorpius being referred to as a pureblood we can assume that she is too, but really nothing else. I will be using Jamie and Lily's middle names for this fic, even though they are not mentioned in the epilogue, because "Sirius" is a rather obvious choice, and "Luna" fits in with what I am trying to do with the story. If Scorpius's middle name comes up I will probably be sticking with "Hyperion", because I can't be stuffed coming up with something else, and George's oldest son will still be called Fred. Other than that you can assume that any information about names of relatives and family sizes and all the rest of it that didn't come up in the book will be wrong here. Although I could quite easily have exchanged the name Serenity for Astoria, there are a lot of other situations where the exra information contradicts my plans, so I have decided that that is where I will draw the line. For example, I can't help feeling that the existence of Rolf, Lysander and Lorcan Scamander would rather interfere with this next chapter...What a dreadfully long author note. If anyone is still reading this, I hope that you enjoy the chapter. Cinnamon.

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter and the Harry Potter universe belong entirely to JKR.

**Luna**

Scorpius awoke—of his own accord—to the now unfamiliar sound of silence. It took him several bewildering seconds to remember that since Lily was spending a few nights with a friend she hadn't woken him early enough for Jamie to still be in the shower.

Still, it was a bit disconcerting.

It soon became apparent that no amount of closing his eyes and lying to himself were going to allow him to get back to sleep. Rolling onto his stomach he reached for the vial of Polyjuice Potion on his bedside table and climbed out of bed.

At least he wasn't going to have to wait for the shower today.

-x-

Scorpius drifted towards the kitchen, drawn by a light tuneless humming that certainly didn't come from Jamie, and by the delicious smell of pancakes cooking. His stomach rumbled slightly, apparently dissatisfied that his new habit of rising early had been abandoned. It was nearly lunchtime.

Reaching the doorway of the kitchen, he stopped short, surprised and a little confused at the sight of a total stranger, long blonde hair still damp from the shower, standing in the middle of the Potter's kitchen cooking breakfast. In any other house but this he would have known immediately what to think, especially given that the young woman was wearing a man's dressing gown, but somehow he couldn't see Harry Potter indulging in casual flings. Ginny was one thing, but that was quite another.

She turned to smile vaguely in his direction, and as he stepped uncertainly just inside the room he realised that his first impression of her age had been wrong. She was probably about the same age as his parents, or Albus's for that matter, but her air of total contentment made her seem much younger.

"Harry and Jamie are doing male bonding," she told the doorframe over his head before turning once more to address the frying pan. Not a stranger, then. "They said to tell you that they didn't like to wake you. Sometimes they do like to spend time together, just the two of them."

"They do? I mean, I know they do." _Geez, stupid much, Scorpius?_

Fortunately, she didn't seem to have noticed his slip.

"Do you want pancakes? I made too many again, and I don't want to leave any to attract Short-Snouted Ningle Munchers."

There was a pause as Scorpius tried to figure out what he could possibly have missed that would cause the end of that sentence to make any sort of logical sense.

"Yes, please," he said at last. He really was very hungry.

-x-

They ate in relative silence, broken only by the woman's cheerful humming.

"You're not Albus," the woman observed at last, dreamily, and Scorpius nearly choked on his pancakes.

"Wha—? How—? I mean—What do you mean?" he spluttered, trying desperately to swallow at the same time.

"It's okay," she assured him sweetly. "I don't mind."

Scorpius stared at her, torn between denying everything and snapping that it wasn't _her _minding that concerned him.

"I expect Harry knows already, really," she stated, apparently reading his mind. "He just hasn't realised it yet."

Scorpius stared at her some more.

-x-

It was late afternoon when Harry and Jamie finally returned to Grimmauld Place, and by that time Scorpius was fairly certain that he was permanently traumatised.

Apparently dismissing his identity as unimportant, the woman—whose name Scorpius had yet to discover—had proceeded to engage him in a variety of topics which ranged from the current alignment of something and something-or-other-else (Scorpius had dropped Astronomy at the first opportunity) and the supposed curative properties of stingray barbs, and completely bypassing anything that could possibly be referred to as a normal conversational topic.

"Of course, if they had actually thought to check for signs of Wrackspurt infestation they would have had no problem dealing with it—" she was assuring him when the front door banged open. Abandoning the conversation immediately, and thereby confirming Scorpius's suspicions that it had been designed entirely to keep him as confused and off-balance as possible, she got up to greet the returning Potters.

She was only halfway to the door of the sitting room when it too burst open, and Jamie swept her up into a bear hug.

"Luna, my love! I haven't seen you in ages! How are you doing?"

Luna smiled affectionately, reaching up to ruffle his hair, and Scorpius marvelled at her bravery. It had taken Jamie at least one hour and five magically augmented hair care products to achieve that result, and he was unlikely to take kindly to having it interfered with.

"I saw you this morning, silly."

"Two minutes in which you instructed me—with your eyes still closed—to go away and take my bloody father with me if I knew what was good for me does not actually count as 'seeing', Luna. I'm surprised you even remember it."

Luna looked quite indignant, an expression which did not sit naturally upon her face.

"You would remember it too, if you'd been woken at that dreadful hour by you bashing on the door and demanding that Harry get up and go somewhere with you."

There was a pause during which she seemed to be trying to figure out what was wrong with that sentence, and Jamie seemed to be trying to decide whether it was worthwhile to point it out to her. They were both distracted by Harry walking a little more calmly into the room.

"Awake now, Luna?" he asked mockingly, but Scorpius saw that there was a light in his eyes which had been totally absent when he looked at Ginny.

Well, he had been right about it not being a fling, at least.

-x-

Albus was going to have some serious explaining to do, Scorpius thought vengefully that evening, as he attempted to compose a suitably scathing letter before dinner.

Not once, _not once_, in any of his long complex explanations of his family had Scorpius mentioned the fact that his father had a lover, and Scorpius found that inexcusable. What if he'd been slightly less awake when he entered the kitchen, and had asked who she was, or something equally stupid? Not that that would actually have mattered, since she had seen straight through his deception anyway, but what if someone else had been in the room?

Failing to mention Blaise and Ginny was one thing; Ginny was rarely around, Albus might have assumed that he would know anyway, since Blaise was his godfather, Albus might not even have known himself, if it came to that...But he had to have known about Luna.

"_It's a pity that Lily's not home, or we could have had dinner with the whole family, for once," _Jamie had said earlier that day, and Scorpius had had no difficulty in grasping the ramifications of _that._

Luna was family. Ginny was not. It was as simple as that.

Most definitely Albus was going to have some explaining to do.

**A/N: **So what did you all think of my Luna? I apologise to all those people whose Luna's I have dismissed in my head as being completely OOC; she is quite impossible to write, she really is. I hope that you all found her close enough to canon not to flame me, although any suggestions for improvement are always welcome. Thank you for reading. Cinnamon.


	9. Denial

**A/N: **I am sosososososososo sorry you guys. It's been way too long, I know. Does starting uni and this being a first time offense help my case any? And then, of course, FFN has been stuffing up all day. (Let's just forget all those other days, alright? I will if you will.) I have tried to post this like twenty times. This is further than I've gotten so far, though, so I'm feeling optimistic. Fingers crossed. I was also planning to update Stitching today, for those of you who are reading both my stories. Obviously, that's not going to happen. And I have classes for the next four days. I will do my best though. Don't give me that look. I _know _I've said that before. I _did _try. Anyway, I really hope that not all of you have abandoned me, and that you think this chapter was worth the wait. Cinnamon.

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter and the Harry Potter universe belong entirely to JKR.

**Denial**

Draco moved the _Daily Prophet _aside and raised one supercilious eyebrow at his son's hysterics. He had been acting very strangely ever since returning home for the holidays, but this was getting ridiculous.

The early rising he could understand; he was an early riser himself, and had never understood Scorpius's need to remain in bed till he had missed the better part of the day. The sudden predilection for his own company he could understand too; the boy had just lost his mother, after all, and probably wanted to cement the bond with his sole remaining parent.

Spraying his breakfast across the table before rolling with helpless laughter across the floor was something else entirely. Really, the boy was becoming quite unhinged.

-x-

It was a considerable time later when Albus finally managed to get control of himself, and by that time Draco had stalked off to his study to do whatever it was that Malfoy scions did in their studies. Albus didn't blame him.

But really, how else was he supposed to react when his best friend had apparently joined the long line of people who believed that Luna and his dad were together? It was actually becoming quite ridiculous.

Sure, if you didn't know much about the family you might be excused for wondering.

The signs were all there, after all.

The two of them were certainly very close, and it was probably understandable that a lot of strangers who saw the five of them out celebrating some special occasion—Jamie's birthday last year, for example—always assumed that they were a family. In a way, they were. If Ginny spent more time at home it would be different, Albus was sure.

If Ginny spent more time at home, then Harry wouldn't have to call Luna every time a situation came up that he couldn't handle on his own. Like when Lily had got her first...Well, never mind that.

Luna _did _spend a lot of time at Grimmauld Place, although not while Ginny was around, of course. The two of them hadn't got along very well for a while now. Probably since about the time that Luna had become such an integral part of the Potter family. That was probably a lot of what made Jamie so certain that they were a couple.

But Jamie was wrong. Of course he was.

Jamie and Ginny had never got along very well, even before Albus was born, as far as he could tell. Especially before, come to that. So Jamie had always been very much in favour of the Harry/Luna theory.

Wishful thinking didn't make something true, though, especially when it was so obviously not.

_Wishful thinking also doesn't make things untrue, _chided that annoying little voice that always came to him at just the wrong moments. _Why shouldn't they be together?_

Harry was still in love with Ginny, though, he had to be.

_Wishful thinking..._

And even if he wasn't—_which he was_—that didn't mean he was in love with Luna. They were just friends.

"_I love you, Luna, you know that?" How many times has he said that?_

He had said the same thing to Hermione, though, when she had agreed to look after them that one time.

He had been called in to work unexpectedly, Ginny had stormed off in a huff that morning, and Luna was still off in South Africa somewhere, looking for one of her creatures. She often did that when Ginny came home, especially when they had been younger.

That was just a coincidence, though. She and Ginny had had a fight about something. They were always fighting, and Luna probably just wanted to avoid that.

_Coincidence, huh? And what were they fighting about, have you ever asked yourself that? They were best friends once, you know that. What changed?_

People grew apart over time, though. It happened to everyone. They grew up and developed new interests, and suddenly they had nothing in common...

There was a disdainful snort in his mind.

_Nothing in common? You honestly think that they _ever _had anything in common?_

They fought about something, then. Something serious, obviously. Just because he didn't know what it was—

_Oh, you know, alright._

—didn't mean that it hadn't happened.

_It _did _happen, and you do know about it. Lily told Jamie, remember?_

-x-

"_Jamie?"_

"_What is it, Lily?"_

"_..."_

"_Just tell me, Lily. Or am I going to have to tickle you?"_

"_No!"_

"_Well, then, what's the matter?"_

"_Ginny and Luna were fighting today."_

"_Oh."_

"_What is a 'total whore'?"_

"_Lily Luna Potter!"_

"_What?"_

"_Never mind. Just don't repeat that, okay? Where did you hear that?"_

"_Luna said it to Ginny."_

"_What else did they say?"_

"_Luna was going on about a lot of people I don't know, and then she said that something wasn't fair to Daddy, and that—"_

"_Was one of those people Blaise Zabini?"_

"_...Yeah, I think so. Do you know him?"_

"_No. Go on with what Luna was saying to Ginny."_

"_She was just screaming about 'after all he's been through', and all that other stuff that people always say about Daddy when people are mean to him. And she called Ginny a lot of other things, except that I knew what they meant. Like, she called her—"_

"_Well, you're not allowed to say those words either."_

"_You don't even know what they were."_

"_I think I have a pretty good idea."_

"_Oh. Well, anyway, Ginny was pretty mad too, at this point, and she was calling Luna a lot of the words that I'm not allowed to say as well. And then she said something else..."_

"_..."_

"_..."_

"_Aren't you going to tell me what it was?"_

"_I thought I wasn't allowed to repeat stuff they said."_

"_That's different—"_

"_I don't see how."_

"_Of course not, you're too young. Ouch!"_

"_You were saying?"_

"_Alright, you're not too young. But I don't have time to explain it now, so you'd better just tell me what she said."_

"_Just something about how if she were so in love with Daddy then she didn't see why she didn't just—word Daddy says I am never ever to repeat—him, herself. And Luna goes, 'Fine, I will then, if that's how you feel about it.' Jamie?"_

"_What is it Lily?"_

"_How come you look so pleased all of a sudden?"_

"_Don't be silly. What else did they say?"_

"_Nothing. Ginny chucked one of those vases at her, and then stormed out. I don't think she wanted Luna to say that."_

"_I bet she didn't. Now, no telling anyone what you heard, okay? Especially Dad. It'll be our little secret."_

"_Not even Albus?"_

"_Oh, I'm sure that Albus has heard every word that you just said. He is such a Slytherin."_

"_He is not!"_

"_Is too!"_

"_Is not!"_

-x-

Something said in the middle of a fight and overheard repeated by a child hardly classified as definitive proof, though. Far from it. They had probably all misunderstood completely.

The whole idea was still laughable.

-x-

Awakening slightly, Harry instinctively reached across the bed. Coming up empty, his eyes flashed open.

"Luna?"

"Over here, love."

His eyes located her over by the window, and he smiled. He would never understand why she seemed so determined to wear his clothes at every available opportunity. _He _certainly never felt the urge to wear her clothes, which was probably lucky. He would never fit into them.

"And what are you doing over there?"

She eyed him speculatively, obviously trying to decide if he was in the right mood to humour one of her creature tales.

He wasn't.

"Come back to bed," he commanded, voice still husky from sleep.

"Why should I?"

"Because I want you to?"

"And what kind of reason is that?" she asked indignantly, although he noticed that she was walking back towards him anyway.

"A very good one."

"Says who?"

"Says me."

"Oh, really? And how, exactly, do you plan to—? _Harry!_"

"Yes, love?"

"That's—mmm—cheating!"

"Cheating, is it?"

"Yes it is! _Oooh!_ That tickles! Harry! Oh!"

"Yes, love?"

"Stop teasing and kiss me."

"Yes, love."


End file.
